Emerald ethics hearing postponed

Councilwoman Marti Emerald

John Gibbins

Councilwoman Marti Emerald

Councilwoman Marti Emerald (John Gibbins)

A hearing to determine whether San Diego City Councilwoman Marti Emerald should be fined for alleged campaign violations has been postponed after her attorney filed a motion to disqualify a member of the ethics panel set to review the case.

Attorney Bob Ottilie arrived about five minutes late to the 9 a.m. Thursday hearing and then requested that Ethics Commissioner Gil Cabrera be removed because of comments he made in an online interview last month.

The case was to be heard by a three-member subset of the seven-member Ethics Commission. After a 15-minute delay to discuss how to proceed, Cabrera said he would recuse himself so the hearing could move forward.

Ottilie was presented with the option of going ahead with a replacement for Cabrera, but he declined because he said the rules require the full commission to meet and reappoint a new subgroup.

The administrative hearing has been a long time coming as Emerald has been under an ethics probe since she took office in December 2008.

At issue is whether Emerald should be fined as much as $10,000 for two alleged campaign violations. She is accused of neglecting to record in a timely fashion $50,000 in bonuses owed to her campaign consultant and fundraiser after her victory in the November 2008 election. She didn’t report the bonuses until July 13 — eight months after they were incurred.

The delay allowed Emerald to collect contributions to cover a debt that had not been disclosed. Much of the roughly $73,600 she raised between January and June of last year came from lobbyists and developers who stood to gain from her decisions on the City Council.

Emerald deferred comment to Ottilie.

Ottilie said the Ethics Commission investigators have treated his client unfairly throughout the probe despite Emerald’s full cooperation. He said they refuse to discuss a possible settlement of the issues despite his repeated efforts, which forced Emerald to seek a hearing to review evidence in the case.

Ottilie said he sought Cabrera’s disqualification because of comments he made in a Jan. 7 interview with voiceofsandiego.org, a news Web site.

In the interview, Cabrera was asked about complaints lobbed against the Ethics Commission.

“In my experience, the folks who claim the commission staff was heavy-handed are the ones who obfuscated and delayed the staff’s investigative efforts at every stage, necessitating more aggressive actions,” he said. “Some day, when these investigative files become public records, you will be able to see that.”

The interview did not mention Emerald’s case specifically.

Emerald and Ottilie have both made critical comments about the commission’s staff at public hearings.

Ottilie said the disqualification was warranted because a person might reasonably believe that Cabrera could not be fair while presiding over Emerald’s case. “It’s not a finding that somebody’s not fair or hasn’t been fair,” Ottilie said.

Cabrera, who was not re-appointed by Mayor Jerry Sanders and has announced his intention to step down from the commission, said he didn’t want to hold up the hearing.

“My resignation is effective March 11 so it is silly to delay the proceedings if one side takes issue with my being here and I’m happy to recuse if that’s the issue,” he said. Cabrera declined to comment afterward.

The date of the next hearing in Emerald’s case has yet to be determined.